Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt (born February 23, 1983, London, England) is a British-American actress known for her crisply delineated characterizations of women from all walks of life. Her scene-stealing performance in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) garnered popular and critical acclaim, and she soon landed lead roles in a wide range of movies, including the period piece The Young Victoria (2009), the crime drama Sicario (2015), and the biopic Oppenheimer (2023).

Early life and first roles

Blunt was the second of four children born to a former actress and a lawyer. She overcame a stammer by participating in acting exercises and found a home on the stage. She had initially intended to become a live translator for the United Nations. However, Blunt’s appearance in a student production of the musical Bliss (2000) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival brought her to the attention of an agent, and she soon appeared opposite Judi Dench in a West End production of The Royal Family in 2001. The next year Blunt starred as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Chichester Festival.

After appearing as Isolda in the Boudicca biopic Warrior Queen (2003), she assumed supporting roles in several television productions, among them Foyle’s War (2003), Empire (2005), and Gideon’s Daughter (2005). She earned a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress in a television series, miniseries, or movie for the latter role. Her performance as a young lesbian in the feature film My Summer of Love (2004) was praised for its nuance and sensitivity.

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Breakthrough films: The Devil Wears Prada, Young Victoria, and Sicario

After holding her own against Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, Blunt assumed supporting roles in films such as The Jane Austen Book Club and Charlie Wilson’s War (both 2007). She then appeared opposite Amy Adams in the dark comedy Sunshine Cleaning (2008), about two sisters who start a crime-scene clean-up business. Her star turn as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria proved her ability to anchor a film.

Blunt soon landed lead roles in such movies as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), a comedy-drama about a quixotic quest to introduce salmon to Yemen, and she also voiced the romantic heroine in the animated hit Gnomeo and Juliet (2011) and its sequel, Sherlock Gnomes (2018). Blunt joined the cast of the time-travel thriller Looper (2012) before playing a sergeant in another, more action-driven time-travel film, Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Her singing was on display in Into the Woods (2014), the Disney adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical. She then won plaudits for her turn as an FBI agent in the gritty crime drama Sicario (2015).

A Quiet Place and Oppenheimer

In 2016 Blunt received marquee billing for her role as a glamorous queen in The Huntsman: Winter’s War opposite Charlize Theron. Later that year Blunt starred as an alcoholic divorcée who may have committed murder in The Girl on the Train, an adaptation of Pamela Hawkins’s best seller. She also did voice work for the animated comedies My Little Pony: The Movie, which was based on the popular TV series, and Animal Crackers (both 2017).

Blunt continued to show her range when she starred in the horror movie A Quiet Place (2018), about a young family attempting to survive in a world that has been invaded by monsters that kill at any sound. Her husband, John Krasinski, whom she married in 2010, costarred in and directed the film; Blunt reprised her role in the sequel, A Quiet Place Part II (2020).

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In Mary Poppins Returns (2018) Blunt took on the mantle of the eponymous nanny, garnering reviews that declared her performance “practically perfect in every way.” She later starred with Jon Hamm in the dramedy Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) and with Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise (2021), an action comedy based on a theme park ride. In 2022 Blunt appeared in the TV miniseries The English, a violent western in which she played a British aristocrat seeking revenge in the 1890s.

Blunt’s next project was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023), an acclaimed biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who was involved in the development of the atomic bomb. The film featured an all-star cast that included Cillian Murphy in the title role and Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty Oppenheimer. For her performance, Blunt earned her first Academy Award nomination, and the film was named best picture. In 2024 she returned to comedy, starring alongside Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy.